Shane (film) - Plot

Plot

A stranger, wearing buckskin and a six shooter, calling himself Shane (Alan Ladd), rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled territory of Wyoming. Whatever his past, he's obviously skilled as a gunslinger, and soon finds himself drawn into a conflict between homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and ruthless cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), who wants to force Starrett and the others off the land.

Shane stays for supper and the night at the invitation of Joe's wife, Marian (Jean Arthur), and starts working as a farmhand. Young Joey (Brandon deWilde) is drawn to him and the gun, and wants to learn how to shoot. Shane tries to teach him and his mother that a gun is a tool like any other, except it's designed to shoot people. Whether it's used for good or not depends on the person using it.

There is an obvious attraction, and perhaps a history, between Shane and Marian. She tells Shane that they would be better off if there weren't any guns in the valley, including his. She is emphatic that guns are not going to be a part of her son's life.

When Shane goes into town with Starrett and the rest of the homesteaders, he gets into a fistfight with Ryker's men after being ridiculed for backing down before. With Joe's help, they win, and the shopkeeper orders them out. Ryker declares that the next time Shane or Joe go to town the "air will be filled with gunsmoke."

As tensions mount, Ryker hires Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), an unscrupulous, psychopathic gunslinger, who laughs at the thought of murder. Wilson goads ex-Confederate Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a hot-tempered Alabama homesteader, into a fight, and shoots him down in the street.

After the funeral, many plan to leave. But a fire set by Ryker's men spurs them into pulling together to put it out, rather than driving them out.

Ryker decides to have Wilson kill Starrett in an ambush at the saloon, under the pretense of negotiating. One of Ryker's men loses his stomach for this, and warns Shane that Starrett's "up against a stacked deck."

Joe is resolved to go anyway. He knows that Shane will look after Marian and Joey if he doesn't survive. But Shane tells Joe he's no match for Wilson, although he might be a match for Ryker. They fight and Shane has to knock him unconscious. Joey yells at Shane for pistol whipping his father with the butt of his gun.

Marian begs Shane not to go and asks if he is doing it for her. He admits that he is, and for Joey, and all the decent people who want a chance to live and grow up there.

In town, Shane walks into the saloon. Shane tells Ryker that they're both relics of the Old West, but Ryker hasn't realized it yet. Wilson draws, but is shot and keeps reflexively shooting, even after he's dead. Ryker pulls a hidden gun and Shane returns fire. He's turned to leave when Ryker's brother fires a Winchester rifle from the balcony overhead. Joey, who ran after Shane, calls out and Shane fires back.

Shane walks out of the saloon, where Joey is waiting for him. He says that he has to move on and tells him to take care of his family. Shane also says to tell Joey's mother that there "aren't any more guns in the valley."

Shane's blood runs onto Joey's hands when he reaches up to him. Joey's worried, but Shane tells him that's fine. Wounded, Shane sits up, with his arm hanging uselessly at his side as he rides past the grave markers on Cemetery Hill, and out of town, into the sunrise, over the mountains.

Whether Shane has been mortally wounded, as is often speculated, is apparent in neither the film nor in Schaefer's novel.